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The Lord has spoken, but we, the humble, to you now: "4Hear, O great head of God, and give ear to what Satan has wrought"5. If, therefore, this assembly and the decision of anathema are according to God's will and approval, it is clear that the law is not of God, nor the prophets, with whom is the Forerunner as the rebuker of adultery, and then also the gospel, in violation of which they have made their own economy dear. For if they were to say it is of the same, one of two things must follow: either they will declare Christ a liar, who spoke and gave the law of old in the prophets, and now through Himself in the gospel, or, if He speaks the truth, as He is the truth, they themselves are shown to be liars and steadfast accusers of God, and for this reason to be liable to the anathema which they pronounced against Christ and His saints, having confirmed that adultery and adulterous union and complicity in adultery are the economy of God and of the saints. And it is not otherwise; for there is no partiality with God, as the Moicheianoi suggest, that his laws do not apply equally to all, but in the case of emperors, as he says, they are relaxed and innovated. And where is the gospel of emperors? But truly they have acted very impiously, not understanding that God does not accept the person of man, as the holy apostle said, nor that the same God through one of the prophets, declaring them wretched, says, you have not kept my ways, but you have accepted persons in the law. Has not one God created you? Have you not all one Father? And Solomon also writes these things: Hear therefore, O kings, and understand. And after other things: Because being ministers of the kingdom of the most High, you have not judged rightly, nor kept the law, nor walked according to the counsel of God. Horribly and speedily shall he come upon you, for a sharp judgment is for them that are in high places. For the Lord of all will not shrink from any person. Again, that they have set aside the whole gospel through the aforesaid transgressions, O sacred and divine head, since even one transgression suffices to overturn the universal law; for all the commandments, says Basil the Great, are connected to one another, so that in the breaking of one, the rest are also necessarily broken along with it, saying this not from himself, but from Christ who speaks in him, who says, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven, that is, being lost. And the divine James, for whosoever, he says, shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. They have therefore broken the old and new testament, O blessed one, through the breaking not of the least, but of the greatest commandments of the Lord, the wretches having set forth a law against the evangelical law, to prefer the will of emperors to that of God, whenever they wish. And some wish one thing, and others another at different times. And for this reason there is an overturning of everything until the Antichrist, and hence the so-called economy among them will rightly be named the forerunner of Antichrist. For what need is there even to speak about the transgression of the canons? For when they have turned their backs on the gospel, who has leisure to care about them. And God through the prophet says these things: I will give the key of the house of David upon his shoulder, and he shall open, and there shall be none to shut; and he shall shut, and there shall be none to open. But they, on the contrary, have shut what he opened, deposing the innocent as seems good to them, but not to God, and what he shut, they have opened, promoting those who are subject to deposition by God's judgment once and for all according to what seems good and pleasing to them, always using the sacred canons despotically as if they were servants and slaves. These are the lawless and impious undertakings and results of the Moicheian heresy. And these things, as the least children of the catholic church, we have been eager to report out of necessity to you, our foremost apostolic head. It remains for her, then, both to conceive and to do the things pleasing to God, being moved by the Holy Spirit in this as in other matters, and not only so, but also

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Κύριος ἐλάλησεν, ἡμεῖς δὲ οἱ εὐτελεῖς πρὸς σὲ τανῦν· "4ἄκουε, ἡ μεγάλη τοῦ θεοῦ κεφαλή, καὶ ἐνωτίζου, ἃ ὁ σατανᾶς ἀπειργάσατο"5. εἰ τοίνυν κατὰ θεοῦ βούλησιν καὶ ἀποδοχὴν ἡ συνάθροισις αὕτη ἥ τε ἀναθεματιστικὴ ἀπόφασις, οὐ θεοῦ ὁ νόμος δῆλον ὅτι οἵ τε προφῆται, μεθ' ὧν ὁ Πρόδρομος ὡς μοιχοελέγκτης, εἶτα καὶ τὸ εὐαγγέλιον, παρ' ὃ ἐκεῖνοι φίλην τὴν οἰκονομίαν αὐτῶν πεποίηνται. εἰ γὰρ φαῖεν τοῦ αὐτοῦ, δυοῖν θάτερον, ἢ ψευδήγορον τὸν Χριστόν, πάλαι μὲν ἐν τοῖς προφήταις λαλήσαντα καὶ νομοθετήσαντα, νῦν δὲ δι' ἑαυτοῦ ἐν τῷ εὐαγγελίῳ, ἀποφανοῦνται ἢ ἀληθεύοντα, ὥσπερ ἐστὶν αὐτὸς ἡ ἀλήθεια, αὐτοὺς ψεύδεσθαι καὶ θεοκατηγόρους ἐναποδειχθῆναι ἀραρότως, καὶ διὰ τοῦτο τοῦ ἀναθέματος, οὗ κατὰ Χριστοῦ καὶ τῶν ἁγίων αὐτοῦ ἀπεφήναντο, εἶναι ὑπευθύνους, βεβαιωσαμένους τὴν μοιχείαν καὶ μοιχοζευξίαν καὶ μοιχοσυνδρομίαν οἰκονομίαν θεοῦ καὶ ἁγίων. Καὶ ἀλλοίως οὐκ ἔστιν· οὐ γὰρ προσωποληψία παρὰ τῷ θεῷ, ὡς ὑποδεικνύουσιν οἱ μοιχειανοί, μὴ ἐφίσης τοὺς νόμους αὐτοῦ κεῖσθαι ἐπὶ πᾶσιν, ἀλλ' ἐπὶ τῶν βασιλέων, ὥς φησιν, ὑποχωρεῖν καὶ καινοτομεῖσθαι. καὶ ποῦ τὸ τῶν βασιλέων εὐαγγέλιον; ἀλλ' ὄντως ἠσεβήκασι λίαν, μὴ συνιέντες ὅτι θεὸς πρόσωπον ἀνθρώπου οὐ λαμβάνει, καθὰ ἔφη ὁ ἱερὸς ἀπόστολος, μηδ' ὅτι ὁ αὐτὸς δι' ἑνὸς τῶν προφητῶν, ταλανίζων αὐτούς, λέγει, ὑμεῖς οὐκ ἐφυλάξατε τὰς ὁδούς μου, ἀλλ' ἐλαμβάνετε πρόσωπα ἐν νόμῳ. οὐχὶ θεὸς εἷς ἔκτισεν ὑμᾶς; οὐχὶ πατὴρ εἷς πάντων ὑμῶν; γράφει δὲ καὶ Σολομὼν τάδε· ἀκούσατε οὖν, βασιλεῖς, καὶ σύνετε. καὶ μεθ' ἕτερα· ὅτι ὑπηρέται ὄντες τῆς τοῦ ὑψίστου βασιλείας οὐκ ἐκρίνατε ὀρθῶς οὐδὲ ἐφυλάξατε νόμον οὐδὲ κατὰ τὴν βουλὴν τοῦ θεοῦ ἐπορεύθητε. φρικτῶς καὶ ταχέως ἐπιστήσεται ὑμῖν, ὅτι κρίσις ἀπότομος ἐν τοῖς ὑπερέχουσι γίνεται. οὐ γὰρ ὑποστελεῖται πρόσωπον ὁ πάντων δεσπότης. πάλιν δὲ ὅτι καὶ ὅλον τὸ εὐαγγέλιον διὰ τῶν φθασάντων παρανομιῶν ἠθετήκασιν, ὦ ἱερὰ καὶ θεία κορυφή, ἐπεὶ καὶ ἓν ἀνόμημα ἀρκεῖ τὸν καθόλου νόμον ἀνατρέψαι· πᾶσαι γὰρ ἀλλήλων ἔχονται, φησὶν ὁ Μέγας Βασίλειος, αἱ ἐντολαί, ὡς ἐν τῇ λύσει τῆς μιᾶς καὶ τὰς λοιπὰς ἐξ ἀνάγκης συγκαταλύεσθαι, οὐκ ἐξ ἑαυτοῦ τοῦτο, ἀλλ' ἐκ τοῦ φθεγγομένου ἐν αὐτῷ Χριστοῦ λέγων, ὅς φησιν, πᾶς ὁ λύων μίαν τῶν ἐντολῶν τούτων τῶν ἐλαχίστων, οὗτος ἐλάχιστος κληθήσεται ἐν τῇ βασιλείᾳ τῶν οὐρανῶν, δηλονότι ἀπολλύμενος. καὶ ὁ θεσπέσιος Ἰάκωβος, ὅστις, φησί, τελέσει ὅλον τὸν νόμον, πταίσει δὲ ἐν ἑνί, γέγονε πάτων ἔνοχος. Λελύκασιν οὖν παλαιὰν καὶ νέαν διαθήκην, ὦ μάκαρ, διὰ τῆς λύσεως οὐ τῶν ἐλαχίστων, ἀλλὰ τῶν μεγίστων ἐντολῶν Κυρίου, νόμον κατὰ νόμου εὐαγγελικοῦ ἐκτεθεικότες οἱ τάλανες, τὸ βούλημα τῶν βασιλέων προκρίνειν θεοῦ, ὁπόταν βούλοιντο. βούλονται δὲ ἄλλοι ἄλλο καὶ ἄλλοτε ἄλλως. καὶ διὰ τοῦτο ἀνατροπὴ τοῦ παντὸς μέχρι τοῦ Ἀντιχρίστου, καὶ ἐντεῦθεν εἰκότως ἡ λεγομένη παρ' αὐτοῖς οἰκονομία προσαγορευθήσεται ἀντιχριστικὴ προδρομία. περὶ γὰρ παραβάσεως κανόνων τί δεῖ καὶ λέγειν; ὁπότε γὰρ τοῦ εὐαγγελίου ἀποτροπάδην ἦλθον, σχολὴ περὶ αὐτῶν φροντίζειν. καὶ ὁ μὲν θεὸς διὰ τοῦ προφήτου τάδε φησίν· δώσω τὴν κλεῖδα οἴκου ∆αυὶδ ἐπὶ τοῦ ὤμου αὐτοῦ, καὶ ἀνοίξει, καὶ οὐκ ἔσται ὁ ἀποκλείων· καὶ κλείσει, καὶ οὐκ ἔσται ὁ ἀνοίγων. οἱ δὲ ἀντιθέως ἐφ' οἷς μὲν ἤνοιξεν, ἀπέκλεισαν, καθήραντες τοὺς ἀνευθύνους ὡς δοκεῖ αὐτοῖς, ἀλλ' οὐ θεῷ, ἐφ' οἷς δὲ ἔκλεισεν, ἤνοιξαν, προχειρισάμενοι τοὺς ὑποπίπτοντας καθαιρέσει θεοκρίτως ἅπαξ πρὸς τὸ αὐτοῖς δοκοῦν καὶ ἀρέσκον, ἀποχρώμενοι ἀεὶ δεσποτικῶς τοῖς ἱεροῖς κανόσιν ὡς ὑπηρέταις καὶ ὑποδουλίοις. Ταῦτα τῆς μοιχειανικῆς αἱρέσεως τὰ ἄνομα καὶ ἀσεβῆ ἐγχειρήματά τε καὶ ἀποτελέσματα. καὶ ταῦτα ὡς ἐλάχιστα τέκνα τῆς καθολικῆς ἐκκλησίας σοί, τῇ πρωτίστῳ ἡμῶν ἀποστολικῇ κεφαλῇ, ἀναγγεῖλαι κατὰ τὸ ἀναγκαῖον προεθυμήθημεν. λοιπὸν αὐτῆς ἐστι τὰ ἀρεστὰ θεῷ καὶ διανοηθῆναι καὶ πρᾶξαι, ὑπὸ Πνεύματος Ἁγίου ὡς ἐπ' ἄλλοις καὶ ἐν τῷδε κινουμένης, οὐ μὴν ἀλλὰ καὶ